


Friends And Allies

by tielan



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Love, Slice of Life, thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-19
Updated: 2011-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-27 13:54:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are days when Gwen definitely feels on display in the court of Camelot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends And Allies

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "Gwen - Planning her own wedding and being involved in the politics around the castle at the same time."

There are days when Gwen feels like she’s a doll on display in the court of Camelot. Perhaps a circus performer?

See the servant girl who will be Queen! Observe the way she speaks her mind in public! Marvel at her chiding the King and his advisors openly when they go against her wishes! Wonder at her temerity in her involvement in politics!

“Ignore them.” Merlin says one day after a nobleman grunts his opinion a little too loud in the great hall. “He’s got the brains of an ass.”

“I _am_ ignoring them,” Gwen says with stiff dignity. “But they still get said. And will - if not in public, then privately. They’re not going to love me, Merlin; I don’t expect them to.”

Gwen knows has friends in the court. Not just Arthur, or Merlin, or Gaius, of course. Gwaine has already cried insult on a border lord for disdaining her, and if Lancelot isn’t so hot-tempered, he can do a polite set-down like he was born to it.

She has her allies among the women, too. Lady Elena Godwyn has become a friend and advisor - although she cheerfully admits that her advice probably isn’t what Gwen wants.

“I was never very ladylike,” she says. “I just...I don’t see the point. I mean, I have to because I’m a lady and that’s what ladies do, but I’d much rather not. I imagine you’d rather not, too, my Lady Guinevere. But you have to and I have to, so I suppose we could endure it together?”

Gwen can’t help laughing, but she likes Elena. There’s no artifice in the young woman, and she admires the confidence with which she plunges through life. “We could. I’d be glad to endure the court with you.”

So it’s Elena who advises Gwen on the court and weddings and royal things, often recalling the advice of her nurse Grunhilde. The irony of taking that particular Sidhe’s advice for Gwen’s wedding to Arthur isn’t lost on Gwen, but it’s still good advice.

There’s a part of her that wishes she had Morgana here - the Morgana she loved and served faithfully for so many years. That Morgana would have known what to say, what to do, how to appease the murmurs, how to disdain the sneers. The Morgana who returned after the year of disappearance was someone else - a different woman, not Gwen’s friend.

Gwen will never forgive Morgana all the deceptions, all the pain, but she misses the friend she remembered having, all those years ago.

And then there’s Arthur, who’s at once anxious after the wedding preparations and embarassed by them.

“Do you ever think it would be nice to just run off and get married?” He asks one night out on the parapet, leaning down beside her and looking out across the still-rebuilding town. “Skip all this and just...be other people?”

“Every day,” Gwen sighs. “But we can’t.”

“We could.”

“Don’t even think about it, Arthur.”

“I don’t see what’s the harm in thinking about it,” he protests, but grins and angles himself so he can lean his head on her shoulder. “Geoffrey says you and Elena are arranging things nicely between you. When he can pin you down, of course.”

“It’s not my fault you’re always calling for my opinion in the judgement seat,” Gwen protests.

“It’s not my fault you give such good judgements,” he retorts. “And what was that I heard about a breakneck ride through the forest, the other day?”

Gwen just laughs. Elena wanted to go riding, and dragged Gwen and half the women of the court out. Except that Elena’s idea of a ‘light ride’ was closer to a mad gallop through terrain that would have terrified a knight of Camelot. “Sometimes it’s nice to get out of Camelot and just run,” is all she says.

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” Arthur murmurs. “It’s not like I’ve not thought about running away myself from time to time.”

“But you’re still here.”

“As long as you are.”

She likes the warmth of his cheek against her shoulder, the reminder that, if Camelot looks to Arthur Pendragon for protection, Arthur Pendragon looks to her for love.


End file.
